♥LovetheNewMe♥

I eat when I'm hungry. If I am not hungry I do not eat. Most days I eat 3 meals a days occassional 2 meals and 2 snacks. The key is not the amount of meals you eat but learning to not graze and eat only when hungry and eat the right balance of protein, fats and carbs. The band is just the tool that keeps you from getting hungry as frequantly and if you eat right you should be able to go 3-4 hours between meals. Good luck!

It is worth it, don't let others experiences scare you. Listen to your doctor and his staff and you will do fine. Good Luck!

I checked out your new blog and it is great, I joined so I could follow your journey. Good luck!

I know it happens but mine still functions but is tilted and I can only have fills under fluroscopy. They tried an unfill in the office and it did not go well. Has your surgeon said the port is defective?

Keep up the good work. The preop diet is one of the worst experiences. Your are doing great and only a few more days to go until the surgery.

Congratulations! Your dedication will help you so much with your lap band journey. I really hope this works out for you this time. Keep us posted.

Sara, I went to this web site(http://all-about-lapband.com/problems/failure.html) and this is what I found. But remember that unless you read a true medical study it is only the opinion of a lay person. Lap band was my choice because it seemed less invasive than the alternatives of gastric bypass or gastric sleeve. If you are really concerned over the erosion factor or failure discuss this with your surgeon, no physician wants his patients to go into a procedure with a lot of doubt and concerns. I guess in my OPINION, the benefits out weighed the risks. Anytime a human has something foreign implanted into their body there is a risk of failure and complications, but we all know and there are plenty of studies to support this. Obesity kill! The complications that come along with being overweight far out way the complications of the lap band. The band and any weight loss surgery is a personal choice and remember everyone will have an opinion but also remember we are each individual and how our bodies respond is individual. Good luck with your decision and good luck with your weight loss. The band was my choice and I have no regrets, yes some days it is tuff but I would rather have my ups and down with my band than to continue to be overweight. Talk to your surgeon, when I had surgery I was more concerned with his complicatons rates than lap band failure. Remember please these are only my opinions and have no scientific backing. Lap Band Failure Are you looking for information on lap band surgery failure rates and long term success rates? Lap Band surgery has only been in existence a relatively short time, approximately 10 years. Initial results with lap band were very positive with respect to weight loss and morbidity. Not many long term studies have been done. Here are the results on one eight year study. The study defines failure as losing less than 25% of excess weight. Average age of the patients was 38 years and included 50 men and 270 women. ComplicationPercent affectedGeneral Complications33.1% Erosion9.5%Slippage6.3%Port Problems7.6%Thirty three percent, fully one third of all patients developed complications such as erosion, slippage, catheter or port problems. Twenty two percent of the patients required reoperation to fix failures of the lap band. Now for the disheartening results, only about 60% of those banded that don't have major complications maintain an acceptable excess weight loss in the long run. That means of those without complications only 4 in 10 are going to be successful. Did your doctor tell you that? Did youask him? In five years 40% of lap bands fail and only 43% have lost 50% of excess weight after seven years. The study concludes that LGB (Laporoscopic Gastric Band) should no longer be the surgery of choice until they figure out a way to either screen out those that have complications or eliminate the complications. The study indicates other longer lasting procedures should be used. If you would like to read more about the study, here it is. A reader writes regarding this study... OK, as somebody who has been banded 6+ years, I have to say that at least 60% of the people I know who were Banded around the time I was Banded or soon after no longer have their Bands. I know that if I post something like this in the General forums... I get a lot of hands over eyes and mouth saying "no no no ... that can't be true..." because most newly Banded people do not want to hear this. I can't find any concrete statistics from Inamed/Allergan.. nor do I think they keep them (or want to keep them)... but I did find this study: lap band faiulres. Lap band is the better choice in my OPIONION hands down. Good luck with your surgery. http://all-about-lapband.com/problems/failure.html

Remember nothing ventured nothing gained(except #'s) It nevers hurts to stand up and fight for your rights. You just have to get to the right person. You are worth the fight. Hosptials need to be consistant, if you know of this friend who had this procedure and they allowed the 500 down payment and a payment plan than TELL them that. Hosptials have to have consistant rules and fair billing. All persons on billing have to be treated the same. If you started this process before they changed their billing practice and you were given your info prior to that than you need to push and push hard to make them honor their VERBAL committment. Do not cancel the surgery and do not cheat, remember if you cheat no one loses but you. This will happen, power of positive thinking. Arnetta can do this, and all of the hard work and frustration will be worth it. hugs, Diane

Normal feelings, My second and third day post op were my worst. Honestly it took my weeks to gain energy and months to learn to eat. I finally have hit my sweet spot, I have only had two fills and believe me everyone is different. It does not matter how much is in your band, You are morning the loss of everything, and how it used to be. Now as you start this journey you have to think before you eat, in the beginning it is difficult but if does get better if you learn to use your band and not expect the band to do the work. I have never regreted my decesion, I will be at one year next month and have lost 72 lbs with about 25=30 to go. You can do this, in the beginning I lived on this web site, it was my connection with people who really understood how I felt and without their support it would have been much harder. It will get better believe us.

Speechless! I am so sorry, I am going to pray that this works out for you. I understand how hard you have been working and honestly rules should not change in the middle of the game. Health care coverage has become such an issue in our nation and sadly enough it is only going to get worse. All of the insured are going to continue to have to pay more for the uninsured. I know this does not help your situation but hospitals honestly don't make money these days, we struggle to provide quality care to patients without compromise. I deal with this crap on a daily basis, and honestly 30 years ago I went into this profession to take care of people and make a difference. Insurance companys are a necessary evil. They dictate a lot of our care that is provided, non-medical people calling the shots over medical decisions. I will get off my soap box and again, I really hope this works out for you within the next week. Today with a family, coming up with extra dollars is hard. Keep your head up, you are doing so amazing and this will become a reality for you. You have the dedication and drive to make. Cyber hug :welldoneclap: it

Scales, to weigh or not to weight. The scales can not always be your friend when losing weight. Everyone fluctuates 1-3 lbs daily from water weight gain. When you are doing the pre surgery diet, the goal is really not so much weight loss but shrinking the liver so when they do the surgery your liver is not in the way. In our anatomy the liver and stomach are very close and if the liver is enlarged it can prevent the physician from completing the procedure closed. In the beginning we all want that instant gratification of seeing the scale drop but for the long haul it is about results and a lot of our results are in inches not weight. As far as exercising during pre-surgery stages, your going to feel tired. Even now weighing 175 lbs it takes about 1700 calories just to maintain this weight if I wanted with little activity so if your only consuming 500-600 your body needs all of those calories just to maintain and when your exercising your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto every calorie because it needs it to provide energy to all your organs. Remember your heart is muscle and it needs protein also. Maybe taking a short walk in the evenings once or twice would be good but make it a nice walk, time to relax and center your self. Listen to relaxing music and prepare yourself mentally for the journey ahead. Your dedication to the pre-surgery diet will prepare you for the focus you need once your surgery is completed. Proud of you, you are doing great, the day is closer, only one week left.

Hey Deb and Nov Bandsters, I am down 72 lbs since surgery last October 27th. I have been stuck in the 170's for months, dropped a few lbs last 2 weeks. I had a little mishap exercising and tore some cartlidge in my knee and am in PT now trying to recover. I have not had a fill since Feb or Mar of this year. I am pretty much at my sweet spot and can eat pretty much anything. I eat around 1100 to 1200 calories a day, when I was exercising I tried to eat aound 1340 to account for the exercise. I lost 13 inches during exercise and am in a size 12 from my original size 24. I track my food daily on myfitnesspal.com and work hard to stay focused. I have gotten stuck in my progress off and on but have either increased activity or went back to monitoring my intake and writing everything down. I still have 30 lbs to lose to goal, I will get there eventually but it is slow going for now. I do most of my writing on the lap band blog now. Just keep working at it, it takes time and we are all going to experience slow periods along the way.

Love the story and occassionally we all deserve a "cookie".

Great attitude! Honestly you have unlocked the key, if you have your mind in the right place you can be successful because you want it so bad. Sometimes we can be our worst enemies and stinkin thinkin can be the down fall of our weight loss. Proud of you. Having a family, feeding them and not eating all that they do is hard. I still cook for my family, but have learned that i can eat some of the foods but not all. Your life will change but the trade off is worth it, support from your husband is key. Mine has been great, he went to every pre learning session with me so he would know what to expect, he wanted to support me and he gets to enjoy the rewards. Only 12 more days to go, keep up the good work and the positive thinking. Another suggestion, take a picture now, full body (with clothes of course) and post one on your bathroom mirror and one on your refrigerator. No better reminder of why you don't want to eat than to look at that picture every day. Write an affrimation on the bottom of the picture that says, I will be successful. I know that sounds hokey but the power of positive thinking works, mind over matter. So excited for you can not wait to see the New You!

Agree your doctors an idiot. Eating less than 1200 calories a day can stall your weight loss. You say you are exercising are you losing inches. I stayed at the same weight for months after losing 72 lbs but lost 13 inches from exercising and dropped a size. I got injuried, had to stop exersising, dropped my calories from 1340 to 1200 and lost 3 lbs. Now some say I stopped building muscle and lost fat again, what ever. Also i have done some reading that if you mix your daily calorie intake up every day, one day eat 1200, one day 1000, one day 900, etc it will jump start your weight again. Eating 500-600 calories aday is crazy and it will waste muscle over time along with fat. Good luck and I hope you can start losing again soon. I understand the frustration.

I have been flying since I was banded and yes I notice a difference, I am not able to eat as well the day of flying or immediately on landing. I have to eat very slow or food gets stuck. On the discussion talks there is some feed back from bandsters on flying long distance and this happening. Some people have actually had fluid removed for long flight. So yes for some this does happen.

Kelly thanks for the post. I think you bring up a very good point that I personally see a lot of my friends at work do. The Band can not do all the work, having your band repeated filled to make sure you can't eat is not the key. The key to weight lose is learning how to modify your calorie intake, eat the right amont of calories daily with the right balance of protein, carbs, and fats. A lot of people are looking for the easy way out, honestly in weight loss there is not easy way out, if you under eat and over exercise you will not lose weight but honestly it is about losing fat and building muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat so if you exercise and eat well your body will thrive and use the food as fuel and shed what it does not need. I have only had two fills and the second one ended in an unfill. I do not plan to have any more fills becasue I can eat pretty much what I want, some days are better than others. I exercise (or I did before my knee went out) and a eat, 33% fat, 124%carbs and 90 grams of protein aday. I watch my na intake and I exericse 40 minutes of cardio 3 times a week and do weight training 3 days a week. to maintain my current weight I would need to eat 1660 calories aday, I eat 1200 per day sometimes more or less. If I get stuck in my weight I mix up my calorie intake for a week or say, one day I increase my calories, one day I decrease my calories. I rarely eat exactly the same amount every day. I still have fluid in my band and I can eat like this. I guess I use the band as a security blanket but it works. My goal is to be a size 10, I am currently a size 12 and weigh 175 lbs. Honestly my doctor or nutritionist did not teach my how to eat with the band, I figured it out my self by spending hours on the internet reading about weight loss. Bottom line the band is a tool and only a tool, there is no magic wand or fast solution, some of us just figure that out sooner than others. Congratulations on your loss and you look fabulious.

Congratulations!

what kind of shakes are you drinking. Here is a web site that I like there shakes and you can order online, I order the individual varity pack, a little more costly but only 4oz.s, low carb and calorie and high in protien. Also try the isopure fruit flavored at GNC they are 40gms of protein and have a little after taste but you can tolerate them if you get tired of milk based. I hate they myoplex and some of the other mixes, to much whey after taste. The web site is www.bariatriceating.com My favorites are peanut butter cookie, carmell latte and double dutch chocolate. I also like the unflavored pure powder they sale, you can mix it will a skinny carmel machiatto from star bucks and have a protein drink and a coffee. Special rules for mixing in hot liguids but it is yummy. YOu can also mix the unflavored in your cream soups and other liguids post and preop. The protien will keep you from being hungry. This phase will be the hardest, but you can make it.

Finally, i got on the scale this morning and they moved. down 1.5 lbs. I was so happy to see a new number. Then I went to work. Why do some people just have to burst your bubble. I was talking to a nurse and we were talking about losing weight and I said, I had been stuck at the same weight fo a while and was frustrated. She said,"You look amazing" I said, thank you. Then I was telling her about hurting my knee exercising and how worried I had been about not losing and afraid of gaining, so when the scales moved this morning and I was down 1.5 I was elated. She says well you know why don't you, you stopped exercising so you are losing muscle. Just what the blankty blank I need to hear. I know she is probably right but it sure did deflate my mood. Sighhhhh! The day ended well, I went to PT and was able to do the eliptical bike, 599 steps in 10 minutes. My balance sucks, the therapist told me I could use my WII Fit and do the balancing exercises and step exercises. Really low impact compared to what I was doing but I was excited. I decided I would stay positive and not let negative comments distroy my mood. "It is what it is" and right now it is slow going, but it is going. Another thing, not sure what is up with my stomach. I keep getting so bloated and so much gas, I know TMI but seriously, why all the gas. I had a few slices of granny smith apple yesterday and I though I was going to die. Seriously I was doubled over with pain and then later it feels like someone is ripping me open. thank you all for your support, I really appreciate all my lap band friends and all the info we share. I learn so much from reading others blogs. Have a great rest of the week bandsters.

:welldoneclap:

Arnetta, tthe two bits of advice I can offer you is patience. You may ask why patience, becasue this is what I have needed and used the most in this journey and read and read the blogs and talks on the lap band site. I thought I was well prepared, but what I wasn't prepared for was my feelings about food. I went through a phase early on when I really mourned the loss of food and eating. In the beginning it was hard, I had to learn how to chew, how to slow down, what I could eat, what I couldn't eat. Some of the foods I loved, I could no longer eat. I even when through a period when seeing a full plate of food or watching others eat made me physically ill. One time I even said to my husband, if you are going to eat that fast and that much I refuse to sit across from you. Why am I telling you this, because I want you to realize that when you start feeling like why did I do this, you will know it will pass and one day you will believe it was the best thing you have ever done for your self and wonder why you didn't do it sooner. I truley do love the new me. I love the energy I have, I love buying new clothes, I love the fact that I have more confience in how I look and present myself. I worked for this and every step forward and backwards has been worth all the things I gave up. I don't miss any foods now, I enjoy eating again, I enjoy having an occassional treat. I have not only lost weight but changed my behavior, I have learned to live with my band and have not expected my band to do all the work. I know you will do great, think of all the wonderful energy you will have to enjoy your family. Oh and the presurgical diet really sucks, I think it may have been the hardest part of the journey. I tried to be perfect but I got a virus and had NVD and craved a grilled cheese sandwich and I ate it. Good lick and remember we are all here for you, to support you on your journey. :welldoneclap:

Great progress and you look amazing! You have made great progress, you will hit onederland and when you do let us know so we can celebrate with you. I remember that day and it had been a long time since I had seen the scale below 200. Congratulations and keep up the good work,

Well Happy Monday! Just to let everyone know, I am making progress with my physical therapy on my knee. Today I started pool therapy and I actually was able to do steps leading with my right leg. Well of course this was in 4 foot of water but hey, I have been walking with crutches and my knee taped for 3 weeks now. So to me this is progress. I also made it through a whole day at work with out crutches, a limp because I am so afraid of falling but the knee did not buckel once today. The small things that make me happy these days. I still live in fear everyday of gaining weight, I log my food every day, it drives my husband crazy but I want to be sure I am eating right. I had another stuck episode tonight. I have had freguant episodes lately, almost daily something gets stuck. I was having a discussion with my husband tonight and he said he observed that I am going back to bad habits of eating to fast. He;s right, I used to watch the clock and make sure I was chewing every bite. Now I just want to finish when everyone else does, so I eat faster and usually that means I PB at least 1/4 of what I eat and sometimes it really hurts. I guess old habits die hard. Weight is still holding at 177. Hope everyone has a great week.